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I've been looking at Flames of War recently and I have a few questions:

1) How do the different source books interact with each other? i.e. Could a force from Stalin's Onslaught fight against a Market Garden force for example?
2) What sort of investment is required to build a decent sized army? (Example army lists with prices would be useful)
3) This one is more a personal thing than a question about the system, but could you build a list around the Katyusha Rocket Launcher, seeing as this is one of my favourite pieces of WW2 technology?

Thanks in advance

1) If you stay in the same period everything is fine. Late War Period book don't mix with Middle War book.
2) It's a bit long to explain in detail the price in general, take a look at Flames of War Online Store. Even, Wayland Games offer good deals too. Some box sold a full platoon unit, while other can sold only part of the platoon. Tanks are usually around 10-15$ a piece and some can be sold on a full platoon for about 50$.
3) There is some Russian Army book that have those Katyusha Rocket Launcher. You might also have to add some basic troops like Infantry or Tanks to go with it. Best is to look on EasyArmy.com which is a little bit like ArmyBuilder but for Flames of War. You can buy some list for 1-2$, while some are completly free.

1) In Theory yes, as long as they are both from the same 'era'. So for example early war lists should only take on other early war lists. Of course many gamers would mainly want to play games where the opposing armies are historically matched and there is nothing wrong with this, so it all depends of your gaming group and their philosophy.

2) It all depends on what sort of army you want to go for. Late war tank armies are surprisingly cheap now there are allot of compatible plastic kits on the market. I assume from question 3 you want to go for Russians? In which case it costs less than you might think. Zvezda and PSC kits make Russian tank hordes very affordable indeed.

3) Yes, I'm not that familiar with the Russian lists but most of them I've seen have the option for the Katyusha. I think you can take batteries of about 8-12 of things. I've been on the business end of one of those in past games and they are a nightmare!

 RaptorsTallon wrote:
I've been looking at Flames of War recently and I have a few questions:

1) How do the different source books interact with each other? i.e. Could a force from Stalin's Onslaught fight against a Market Garden force for example?
2) What sort of investment is required to build a decent sized army? (Example army lists with prices would be useful)
3) This one is more a personal thing than a question about the system, but could you build a list around the Katyusha Rocket Launcher, seeing as this is one of my favourite pieces of WW2 technology?

Thanks in advance

1) Stick to your period and you should be OK. LW vs LW, EW vs EW. There are some tougher match ups, but it generally has to do with the fact that british and US armor was never all that heavy compared to some of the late war german and russian armored vehicles and those heavies appeared a bit more often in the East thant he West. Given that infantry forces can do just fine against heavy armor forces limits this problem, though. Always amusing watching an opponent loaded down with a few Tiger tanks being completely unable to hit anything in my Fearless vet british para force because they are all dug in and concealed. They get so few shots because of the few tanks that it is even easier to weather the storm.

2) Depends on what force you want, how big you want it and who's minis you buy. Battlefront's minis are nicely done and look good, but are the priciest. Thanks to companies like PSC, you can do armored forces for a lot cheaper now than before. I was able to buy the minis for an entire 1750 point Irish Guards Armored Company (6 Sherman Fireflies and 9 Sherman Vs) for around $100 thanks to PSC. The best part is that PSC's tanks are highly detailed kits as well, so each model is like a small little project on its own and looks great on the table. Only problem is that PSC is best if you are a German or Russian player, US comes in a clos3 3rd, but I am a brit player so have much fewer options for purchase. Luckliy they have a lot of german, russian and US stuff done, so that more british stuff is in the incoming queue than before. Where battlefront's minis shine is when dealing with platoons of guns or infantry, though, because they are packaged with all the minis you need specifically for the unit in the blister. Meanwhile, buying from some other vendors could require purchase of a bag of command minis, a bag of basic trooper minis, and a bag of support weapon minis that you then need to mix and match to make the correct unit. This can lead to unused figs and wasted spending, but makes some people happy with its flexibility. I am more lazy than that, though, so buy most of my guns and infantry direct from battlefront.

3) I know the katushya's exist, but I am lacking in specific list knowledge from the eastern front as play 100% british forces right now and they had no presence there so I only own a couple of the Eastern front books and don't know them very well and do not own either of the big two late war Eastern front books (Red Bear and Grey Wolf).

Skriker

The periods are the timeline of ww2,ew is usually 1939 and 1941,mid war 1942-43,Lw is 44 -45. As for the books on pairings,all of them are complitions of the softbacks of that particular theatre.red bear-grey wolf,is operation Bagration,Turning tide-Earth and steel is d day. brige by bridge and Market garden are the MArket garden books.All of theese are late war.Which is the most popular timeline.i have played all of the eras and LW is are favorite.we like all of tanks.We even use some 45 experimental ones.Since you have open fire it is for market garden late war.But you can always branch off with that.a few people use the paras and start running para lists or the brit armor list.Market garden is the only book that allows you to field American paras with allied brit armor.but it is pretty much up to you on what you want use and of course your group. Are group we just use a open Lw style.As long as it is a LW list you can fild it.as over the weekend a couple of are players had lw Soviets red Bear list vs. American 101st. from nuts.but some prefer to just use the list from certain theathres,example all lists allowed must be from d day.
I hope this helps. feel free to ask anymore questions,i will try my best to answer them for you.

Ok, thanks for all the advice guys.
So, it seems the consensus is that Late War is the best era for Flames of War, and tank companies are quite cheap to build.

Few more questions:
What is the most common points value that people play in Flames of War and about how many models should I expect to have on the field at the start of the game at this level.

Lw is probably the commonest played - but now war is more balanced IMHO

Where I play it is either 1750 or 1780 points.

Number if models varies, if you take the Jagtiger list it can be as low as 4 I think.

Alternatively the brazillian confident conscript list could be 100 odd stands!

Also, to any Russian players out there, which is the best source book to use for a force comprised of Katyusha's and tanks with minimum infantry?

Red bear is the late war Russian book

Ok, thanks. So to get started I would need the rulebook, the Red Bear book and some models.

 RaptorsTallon wrote:
Ok, thanks for all the advice guys.
So, it seems the consensus is that Late War is the best era for Flames of War, and tank companies are quite cheap to build.

Few more questions:
What is the most common points value that people play in Flames of War and about how many models should I expect to have on the field at the start of the game at this level.

Find your local player base to find out what they play before you start buying. Personally I find Early War to be the most enjoyable period to play because everything is relatively balanced then. The heaviest tanks (French Char B1 bis and the British Matilda II) are pricey enough to make them pretty rare, so no force is likely to be unable to deal with any armor threats they face. Also cavalry and armored car forces, which are my fav, are much more a viable option as well. A lot of people like Late War because all the biggest and baddest toys from the war are available then. Being a british player, the brits don't have much in the way of "biggest" or "baddest" in their armored forces so it is not as big a draw for me. I really like the African campaigns and they are done by the time of the LW period...

Common points value is also up to debate. Most places I play run semi-regular escalation leagues that start around 600 points initially and then end up at 1750 at the highest end. 1750 is also a pretty common value for Late war. The latest rage is 1780, but YMMV. My late war Irish guards armoured company has 17 tanks in it. If you had a LW german tiger company you'd be looking at 5-6 tanks. Yeah the tigers are that much tougher, but having so few models on the table really limits your mobility and your adaptability. Infantry companies tend to be a bit pricier to field at 1750 points, especially when supported by plenty of gun teams and other infantry support units and artillery.

Skriker

Why 1780pts?

BF likes to mix up the points on a year by year basis for their NAtionals. Last year it was 1750, this year it's 1780, next year it may be 1725.

Ok then, I suppose changing the maximum points encourages people to re-think their lists more.

If you want to have a FREE look at a Russian Tank battalion list.
Look on EasyArmy.com .The free to use army builder,( for the V3 forces books.)Look for Russian Tankovy
It will give you a good idea what you can get in a 1780 pt russian tank army.
Then LOOK to the Plastic Soldier Company for good value plastic vehicles .(Their 21x T34 tank deal is excellent IMO.)

This will let you price up basic Russian tank army, to give you a good idea of costs.

The Red Bear book is great for more detailed lists and back ground for late war Russian armies.(But it is NOT essential.)

Just be aware, Russians are gonna cost you A LOT of models.

Most other armies are Companies made up of Platoons. Russia uses Battalions made up of Companies. So, using infantry for example. Just one infantry choice in a Russian list will have more models than entire armies of other nations infantry.

 washout77 wrote:
Just be aware, Russians are gonna cost you A LOT of models.

Definitely this. Completely forgot to mention this aspect of it. If you (the OP obviousl) want a cheap $$$ army, the russians are most definitely the WRONG option.

Skriker

 Skriker wrote:

 washout77 wrote:
Just be aware, Russians are gonna cost you A LOT of models.

Definitely this. Completely forgot to mention this aspect of it. If you (the OP obviousl) want a cheap $$$ army, the russians are most definitely the WRONG option.

Skriker

Yep, my first army was Russians. Even our cheap options are usually more expensive than other armies more expensive options.

You CAN do Russians with limited models but:

A) Whats the fun in that? You want to play Russians, if I wanted a small army I would have played Germans

2) Russians rely on numbers, smaller units are gonna get chewed up by other nations who's units are usually more skilled than ours. But we get more chances to pass a Morale Check before we fall back so...

Gvardeyskiy Tankovy of Red Bear is a great tank army with the option for the rocket artillery support you're looking for. Yes that many tanks from BF is almost 300 U.S. dollars however PSC has a great deal on the T-34's. I believe you can get an HQ and both full combat companies (21 tanks) from them for a little under 100 dollars.

Yeah, I will most certainly be buying from places like PSC and I'm not really that concerned about the large number of infantry because I would like to take as little infantry as possible, although a tank hoard sounds like fun, especially if I mix in some more powerful tanks, like KV-1's, with the T-34's.

If you are planning Early/Mid war the with Zvezda and PSC you can put it together for a rather affordable price.

I understand PSC is relasing the IS-2's later this year which should make late war affordable too.

Do you know any good webstores where you can buy the PSC/Zvezda stuff?

If you want Zvezda the best site i have found is http://www.ageofstrife.com/portal.php

 RaptorsTallon wrote:
Do you know any good webstores where you can buy the PSC/Zvezda stuff?

Without sounding like a Complete Douche...I would buy it from PSC directly. At least the profits are going to the man who made it, and Will's Platoon deals are reasonable, if not down right unbeatable if you are gaming on a budget!

I understand that you want to maximise the models for your money, but Will is running PSC part time, he deserves the profit margin! Look at how much he delivers as a Cottage industry! Saving a couple of % is fine but in a bigger context, would you rather give a slice of the Profit Margin to a Middle man who undercuts the prices of the man who produces the stuff?

From my point of view, he deserves to keep the bigger slice, so I buy from him direct even though I could buy cheaper elsewhere. If he was a Global Multi-Nat like GW, I wouldn't care. But this is one mans endeavours with support from people like Big P, so I would give him the few extra pennies and hopefully he can build his Company into a small venture which holds to the ideals he started with. For the way he has moved the industry on, and now BF are suddenly interested in Plastic Sprue Tanks.....

 mwnciboo wrote:

 RaptorsTallon wrote:
Do you know any good webstores where you can buy the PSC/Zvezda stuff?

Without sounding like a Complete Douche...I would buy it from PSC directly. At least the profits are going to the man who made it, and Will's Platoon deals are reasonable, if not down right unbeatable if you are gaming on a budget!

I understand that you want to maximise the models for your money, but Will is running PSC part time, he deserves the profit margin! Look at how much he delivers as a Cottage industry! Saving a couple of % is fine but in a bigger context, would you rather give a slice of the Profit Margin to a Middle man who undercuts the prices of the man who produces the stuff?

From my point of view, he deserves to keep the bigger slice, so I buy from him direct even though I could buy cheaper elsewhere. If he was a Global Multi-Nat like GW, I wouldn't care. But this is one mans endeavours with support from people like Big P, so I would give him the few extra pennies and hopefully he can build his Company into a small venture which holds to the ideals he started with. For the way he has moved the industry on, and now BF are suddenly interested in Plastic Sprue Tanks.....

Ah, fair enough, I had no idea they were such a small company.